Culturally Appropriate & Sensitive Data Collection

Youth Count! Webinar Series

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This is a historical document. Use for research and reference purposes only.

Young people experiencing homelessness include some of the most vulnerable members of our society. This webinar reviews the ‘core data elements’ included in the Youth Count! Guidance. It discusses culturally appropriate phrasing and approaches to data collection around particularly sensitive issues in the Guidance—including, sexual orientation and gender identity. The webinar also reviews approaches to ethical data collection, and Institutional Review Board approval when needed—particularly given the unique considerations of collecting data from unaccompanied minors.

Presenters include ACYF Advisor Matthew Morton, Eric Rice from the University of Southern California School of Social Work and Jama Shelton from the City University of New York and True Colors Fund.

The Youth Count! webinar series is a resource that the Federal government, supported by the Runaway and Homeless Youth Training and Technical Assistance Center, is providing to communities across the country to support better collaborative local point-in-time counts of youth homelessness.

Youth Count! is an interagency initiative led jointly by the US Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) and the US Departments of Education (ED), Health & Human Services (HHS), and Housing & Urban Development (HUD). The purpose of Youth Count! is to aid and encourage communities across the country in developing and implementing strategies to better reach unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness in the 2013 HUD point-in-time (PIT) count of homeless persons and families.

Getting better local and national data on the numbers and characteristics of unaccompanied youth is a key part of the US framework to end youth homelessness. We are working closely with nine communities to pilot youth strategies for the 2013 PIT count and learn from their experiences. However, we encourage all communities to participate fully in improving youth data in the 2013 PIT count, and we want to provide resources to help broadly in that effort.

Through these webinars, stakeholders, including runaway and homeless youth programs, local educational agencies, and continuums of care, will get exposure to different perspectives from leading experts on how to conduct their youth count planning and implementation as effectively as possible. Participants will also have opportunities to ask questions of the presenters and get connected to resources for further follow-up.

These webinars will be recorded so that they can help other youth count efforts beyond the 2013 PIT count in the years ahead.